Egg Shells as Organic Fertilizer
Eggs Classic Round Sticker by Recipes101
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I live in southern California where temperatures can get pretty toasty during the summer months. The heat and the fact that my house sat empty for over a year before we purchased it meant that I had my work cut out when it came to the soil in the garden. The soil had a lot of clay and combined with the heat was as hard as a rock. Hubby and I had top soil delivered and I was constantly out there turning soil over, yet nothing wanted to grow. Until - hold on ...
Crushed egg shells break down faster
I use Egg Shells as Organic Fertilizer, well those and coffee grounds and tea leaves and pretty much any kitchen scrap I could feed to the soil. But more about that in another post. Egg shells are made of primarily Calcium Carbonate, which many plants greatly benefit from. For example calcium helps tomato plants to produce better tasting tomatoes and prevents blossom end rot.
Just sprinkle egg shells over soil
The best way to add eggshells to your garden is to crush them up to assist with quicker break down. The crushed egg shells can then be sprinkled onto your soil. If you have mulch you will notice that the eggshells will sink to the soil and that is ideal for even quicker break down of nutrients. You can also add crushed egg shells to your compost heap . Temperatures in a hot compost heap can get up to 122 Fahrenheit, which helps to kill any bacteria on the egg shells and will break down the calcium in the eggs quickly as well.
Our landfills are full and kitchen scraps and using kitchen scraps for our gardens is an easy way to reduce waste. Using eggshells as organic fertilizer, helps to amend the garden soil naturally and inexpensively. I am happy to report since I have been dumping my eggshells onto the soil my garden soil has become inviting to earthworms and we all know that earthworm castings are worth gold in a garden. The eggshells also are hated by slugs so it's a win, win all around.
